What Is The Best Way To Make "sand" For A Beach Th

Decorating By GenLK Updated 28 Aug 2016 , 5:18am by Dar917

GenLK Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
GenLK Posted 15 May 2011 , 1:40pm
post #1 of 31

I am new to cake decorating. I was asked to make a wedding cake with an elegant beach theme - I have an idea but before I commit to the cake, I'd like to cover all my bases. To make "sand" do you just use graham cracker crumbs? If I wanted to have some stuck to the sides of the cake, what should I use? I usually use Vodka to attach my fondant embellishments - would this work?
Thanks for any ideas! icon_smile.gif

30 replies
Kiddiekakes Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Kiddiekakes Posted 15 May 2011 , 1:52pm
post #2 of 31

2 ways..You can crush up graham wafer cookies/crumbs or use brown sugar.Both very realistic...

Occther Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Occther Posted 15 May 2011 , 1:59pm
post #3 of 31

I use a combo of graham crackers, vanilla wafers, white & brown sugar (from an article in ACD) Makes realistic looking and good tasting sand.

HappyCake10609 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
HappyCake10609 Posted 15 May 2011 , 2:06pm
post #4 of 31

I just used light brown sugar and it looked great! I think vodka would work fine to attach it to the side of the cake....

CutieMcCakes Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
CutieMcCakes Posted 15 May 2011 , 2:12pm
post #5 of 31

I agree with all of these suggestions.. i've done many of them before..
Another idea is to take the cake tops after you've leveled a layer, and let them dry out, then put them in a food processor to grind them to a fine consistency!

terrylee Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
terrylee Posted 15 May 2011 , 2:19pm
post #6 of 31

Raw sugar work great...

Debi2 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Debi2 Posted 26 May 2011 , 4:49pm
post #7 of 31

Personally, I like to grind up vanilla wafers in the food processor. The color and texture look great. If think biting into a cake with ground vanilla wafers would taste good alot better than biting into a coating of of pure sugar. Just my opinion icon_wink.gif You could also use graham crackers if you want the sand a bit darker.

cai0311 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
cai0311 Posted 26 May 2011 , 6:16pm
post #8 of 31

I have a small hand held Braun (I think that is the brand) mixer thing that attaches to a small blender thing.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.braun-handblender.com/images/braun%2520hand%2520blender%2520image.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.braun-handblender.com/&usg=__pnzc4FYsuSccI68z6m_EpS5O1zk=&h=160&w=160&sz=5&hl=en&start=6&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=olRmh6SjqzrKSM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=98&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbraun%2Bhand%2Bblender%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1231%26bih%3D868%26tbm%3Disch&ei=xJjeTaa0OMStgQeu3bzbCg

I put vanilla wafers and brown sugar in the container and then run the blender. It crushes the wafers nicely. I have tried crushing them by hand but the chunks are to big and it doesn't look like sand.

GenLK Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
GenLK Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 1:32am
post #9 of 31

Thank you all for your suggestions! I wouldn't have thought of vanilla wafers and that is perfect because the cake is going to be French Vanilla with Vanilla custard, I think. (Too much vanilla??)

CakelynsFinest Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
CakelynsFinest Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 1:49am
post #10 of 31

I've used both wafers and light brown sugar. I really like the look of the brown sugar better than the wafers personally. Here is a beach themed cake I made for a bridal shower.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2009801

addietx Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
addietx Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 1:54am
post #11 of 31

Pecan Sandies make the BEST sand. The specks of dark pieces of pecans add to the authenticity. The thought of brown sugar sprinkled on a cake never appealed to me.

doramoreno62 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
doramoreno62 Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 2:05am
post #12 of 31

I use graham crackers and if I need to stick sand on the sides I use clear piping gel. Works great!

angeliaaki Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
angeliaaki Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 2:10am
post #13 of 31

my favorite is nutter butters. i throw them in my food processor and it makes a nice look. plus if they like the taste, even better.

JenniferMI Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
JenniferMI Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 3:07am
post #14 of 31

My fav is brownulated sugar. It smells like brown sugar and tastes like it, but it's not gritty at all. Also, the little grains are round, like real sand.

Domino makes it and it's by the brown sugar.

Jennifer icon_smile.gif

sunset74 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
sunset74 Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 3:26am
post #15 of 31

I also do not like Brown Sugar, I can not stand the sweet and grit, I use gram crackers, texture is not horrible and their is no extra sweet.

soupercb Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
soupercb Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 4:03am
post #16 of 31

I used demara sugar comgined with nilla wafer crumbs.

JenniferMI Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
JenniferMI Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 12:04pm
post #17 of 31

The thing I worry about with brown sugar is if it does get mixed into the cake part, it's will be like chomping down on sand (grit). With the brownulated, you don't get that. It's really cool stuff. They have it in the grocery stores here in Michigan.

Jen icon_smile.gif

GenLK Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
GenLK Posted 2 Jun 2011 , 11:26pm
post #18 of 31
Quote:
Originally Posted by JenniferMI

My fav is brownulated sugar. It smells like brown sugar and tastes like it, but it's not gritty at all. Also, the little grains are round, like real sand.

Domino makes it and it's by the brown sugar.

Jennifer icon_smile.gif




I don't think I've ever seen this product in Canada. Something to look for the next time I go to the States! I think I'll play with a few of these suggestions to see which I like best and I'll let you all know how it turns out. Thanks again!

MBoyd Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
MBoyd Posted 6 Jun 2011 , 10:56pm
post #19 of 31

Since sand is not all one texture - for super-realistic sand I've used a combination of:
toasted cake crumbs
coarse sanding sugar tinted a sandy color
crushed graham cracker crumbs
and a sprinkling of ground coffee

If the ground coffee sounds weird to you (its a very small proportion and hey, people eat chocolate covered coffee beans) you can sub ground chocolate wafer cookies.

There is some debate about whether or not to use sugar in your sand especially if it will be applied to buttercream since it will absorb a little bit of the moisture and turn a bit crunchy. That's a judgement call. But if you're just covering the board, its not really an issue.

EmilyJo9 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
EmilyJo9 Posted 6 Jun 2011 , 11:26pm
post #20 of 31

I used brown sugar on my Survivor cake in my gallery. It was done on an all BC cake and it was fine when served. It was still sugary, no crunch. I thought it was realistic but I like everyone's ideas about combining different mediums. COOL! icon_biggrin.gif

Jennifer1970 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Jennifer1970 Posted 7 Jun 2011 , 12:12am
post #21 of 31

I used a combination of graham cracker crumbs and granulated brown sugar on my beach cake.

crazygrammie Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
crazygrammie Posted 9 Jun 2011 , 6:25pm
post #22 of 31

i am making one this weekend and i used the sugar rock recipe at bottom of this page http://www.earlenescakes.com/icings.htm it's super easy and gorgeous. with no coloring they are white and i swirled a bit of pink in. you can break it up to rocks, pebbles or sand size. I'm very very happy with what i got.

chudimac11 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
chudimac11 Posted 23 Aug 2016 , 5:09pm
post #23 of 31

I need to make sand too, anyone ever try cinnamon toast crunch?  To me, this sounds like it would be tastiest but I haven't seen it done.  With whatever I do, so I need to add a little melted butter so it's just a bit clumpy so it doesn't all fall off when moving the cake around?  I'm just adding it to the top of my cake for a beach ball to sit on...

Pastrybaglady Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Pastrybaglady Posted 23 Aug 2016 , 8:13pm
post #24 of 31

I think light brown sugar looks the most like sand but I wouldn't want to eat it on my cake. I've used toasted ground up cookies and graham crackers separately, but the idea of mixing cookies, graham crackers and brown sugar sounds like it would be fantastic! Cinnamon Toast Crunch sounds like it could be a winner as well. Thanks all for the ideas!

[postimage id="4983" thumb="900"]

shellybbear Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
shellybbear Posted 23 Aug 2016 , 11:33pm
post #25 of 31

[postimage id="4984" thumb="900"]I have only ever made one beach theme cake, but I used the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.  The cake was a cinnamon cake with cream cheese frosting, so we thought the cereal really went well with the cake flavors. 

me_me1 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
me_me1 Posted 24 Aug 2016 , 1:40am
post #26 of 31

Pretty similar to everyone else, I use biscuits (shortbread sorts of ones) blitzed in the food processor.  I chuck one or two chocolate (not choc coated, but a choc shortbread sort of thing) biscuits in the mix as well to give it that varied colour like real sand but none of the icky grit of biting into sugar.

gscout73 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
gscout73 Posted 24 Aug 2016 , 3:03am
post #27 of 31

Crushed Nila Wafers are great. With the darker outer surface, and the light cookie inside, they make a great sand that is great to eat with a wonderful vanilla flavor. They are easy to crush, too. you don't need a food processor. I used a heavy glass that is the same diameter, a bottle will also work, and rolled it over the cookies. They crumbled evenly as you can see in the pic below.

900_mid-summer-madness-456443rYsx3.jpeg

TheMrsWalker1 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
TheMrsWalker1 Posted 24 Aug 2016 , 4:15am
post #28 of 31
TheMrsWalker1 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
TheMrsWalker1 Posted 24 Aug 2016 , 4:17am
post #29 of 31

[postimage id="4988" thumb="900"]I used smashed graham crackers for mine!

GoWildCakes Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
GoWildCakes Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 3:21pm
post #30 of 31

Check for nut allergies before using Pecan Sandies grinning.png

Quote by @%username% on %date%

%body%